Sunday, January 1, 2012

Among the year-end lists of "bests," "worsts" and "mosts" comes the annual list of words most overused.

Students at Michigan's Lake Superior State University come up with the list each New Year's Eve, and previous winners have been "shovel ready" in 2010, "battleground states" in 2005, "24/7" in 2000 and "family values" in 1995.

Leading the list in 2011 was "amazing," with nominees pointing to Martha Stewart, Anderson Cooper and most reality television hosts as regular abusers of the word.

Other nominees this year were "occupy," "shared sacrifice," "blowback" and "mancave." Other vote-getters included "the new normal" and "ginormous."

The school began its list of words proposed for banishment in 1976, when it named "at this point in time" as a linguistic dud.